Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care
Current paradigms in Western medicine often fail to differentiate clearly between consciousness, responsiveness and personhood. The growing number of individuals who exist with sustainable cardiopulmonary systems but who are behaviorally unresponsive has prompted a cultural reconsideration of the re...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00306/full |
| _version_ | 1818434370165276672 |
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| author | Stefanie Blain-Moraes Eric Racine George A. Mashour |
| author_facet | Stefanie Blain-Moraes Eric Racine George A. Mashour |
| author_sort | Stefanie Blain-Moraes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current paradigms in Western medicine often fail to differentiate clearly between consciousness, responsiveness and personhood. The growing number of individuals who exist with sustainable cardiopulmonary systems but who are behaviorally unresponsive has prompted a cultural reconsideration of the relationship between the presence of consciousness and what it means to be a person. This article presents relevant clinical situations that exemplify the different modes in which personhood and consciousness can be associated and dissociated: disorders of consciousness, emergence from anesthesia, and neocortical death. We draw from these examples to call for a reflection on and possible revision of the dominant approach towards unresponsive persons to one in which care providers may work from the default assumption of the existence of an individual’s personhood as part of their therapeutic intervention. Behavior consistent with this assumption aligns with the principle of respect for persons in the face of the uncertainty created by the high rate of misdiagnosis of unconsciousness in unresponsive patients and is most consistent with a therapeutic approach to care considering evidence suggesting that attributing personhood may in fact evoke consciousness in these patients. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T16:35:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c38cb24d7fb4b329cb89c858cd93d5d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T16:35:54Z |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c38cb24d7fb4b329cb89c858cd93d5d2022-12-21T22:54:28ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612018-08-011210.3389/fnhum.2018.00306363851Consciousness and Personhood in Medical CareStefanie Blain-Moraes0Eric Racine1George A. Mashour2School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaInstitut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaDepartment of Anesthesiology, Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesCurrent paradigms in Western medicine often fail to differentiate clearly between consciousness, responsiveness and personhood. The growing number of individuals who exist with sustainable cardiopulmonary systems but who are behaviorally unresponsive has prompted a cultural reconsideration of the relationship between the presence of consciousness and what it means to be a person. This article presents relevant clinical situations that exemplify the different modes in which personhood and consciousness can be associated and dissociated: disorders of consciousness, emergence from anesthesia, and neocortical death. We draw from these examples to call for a reflection on and possible revision of the dominant approach towards unresponsive persons to one in which care providers may work from the default assumption of the existence of an individual’s personhood as part of their therapeutic intervention. Behavior consistent with this assumption aligns with the principle of respect for persons in the face of the uncertainty created by the high rate of misdiagnosis of unconsciousness in unresponsive patients and is most consistent with a therapeutic approach to care considering evidence suggesting that attributing personhood may in fact evoke consciousness in these patients.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00306/fullconsciousnesspersonhoodunresponsive wakefulness syndromeminimally conscious stategeneral anesthesianeocortical death |
| spellingShingle | Stefanie Blain-Moraes Eric Racine George A. Mashour Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care Frontiers in Human Neuroscience consciousness personhood unresponsive wakefulness syndrome minimally conscious state general anesthesia neocortical death |
| title | Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care |
| title_full | Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care |
| title_fullStr | Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care |
| title_full_unstemmed | Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care |
| title_short | Consciousness and Personhood in Medical Care |
| title_sort | consciousness and personhood in medical care |
| topic | consciousness personhood unresponsive wakefulness syndrome minimally conscious state general anesthesia neocortical death |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00306/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stefanieblainmoraes consciousnessandpersonhoodinmedicalcare AT ericracine consciousnessandpersonhoodinmedicalcare AT georgeamashour consciousnessandpersonhoodinmedicalcare |